e Battalion
O
PINION
Page 13 • Wednesday, October 27, 1999
SHOULD SANCTIONS BE SANCTIONED?
lussein solely responsible for Iraq sanctions
MARK
PASSWATERS
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[t his been nine years since Sad-
|dam Hussein’s Iraq invaded its
[neighbor Kuwait. Many of the
i sanctions levied against Iraq
(the wake of the 1990 invasion
}still in effect. Millions of Iraqi
tn, women and children are now
png of disease and starvation,
Isome in the United States are
f saying these sanctions must
I lifted.
Somewhere in Baghdad, Hussein must be smiling
he foolishness of the American public. He knows
at most of us do not: He alone is to be blamed for
deaths of his people.
The man known as “The Butcher of Baghdad” was
[the business of killing his fellow countrymen long
fore Operation Desert Storm and its aftermath. Hus-
nhas killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in an
[empt to cement his hold on power. They die today
the same reasons, only now the Iraqi dictator has
onvenient scapegoat.
There is a pervasive belief among those who wish
see sanctions lifted that the money not entering
q would be spent for food and medicine for its pop-
tion. This is an outright lie. Money does indeed en-
Iraq; it simply is not distributed among the popu-
lon. It goes directly into the coffers of Hussein and
Ba’ath Party. In the meantime, Hussein’s propa
nda wing cries out to the world about how the bar-
ric United States and United Kingdom are causing
iqi children to die.
While there is supposed to be a ban on the sale of
iqi crude oil, the CIA has said more than 100,000
rrels of Iraqi crude is smuggled out daily through
tia, Jordan, and TUrkey. The money from this oil,
it officially sold, is never seen by the public. In-
ad, it goes to Hussein.
The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. In this
se, the pudding can be found in the more than 70
w palaces Hussein had built for himself since the
of the war. These are not renovations to existing
laces. These are brand-new ones, with deep
owes currently Wsi
in digs per game withl.ii
per game with .35.
“This is our lastcl»
Texas at home, foriw
senior middle
Leahy said. “And the
we’re Aggies makes th
mge match.”
(lie team in kills perjit Inkers designed to prevent American bombs from
blocks per game, at4,Oh aching him.
respectively. U a ] so can ^ seen j n q ie treatment of the elite Re-
blican Guard and members of the Ba’ath Party,
lese people, whose support Hussein requires to re
in power, actually have increased their standard of
ing since the end of the war.
The Iraqi government has given seven pay raises
members of the Republican Guard and subsidized
rang for them. Ba’ath Party members receive simi-
treatment, as well as free automobiles. In ex-
inge for their continued support of Saddam, these
ople live in the lap of luxury. There is no starvation
malnutrition for them.
Members of the Shiite Moslem and Kurdish com-
had someont
munities, whose support Hussein does not require,
are the ones who have been left to fend for them
selves. When the U.N. does authorize the sale of Iraqi
oil for food and medicine, little reaches this segment
of the population. Since the money is regulated by the
Iraqi government, those in power can do as they
please. Instead of buying clothing or medicine for the
people of Iraq, Saddam has instead spent his money
on his weapons of mass destruction program.
When the Russian, French, and Chinese members
of the U.N. Security Council condemn the U.S. and
U.K. as “barbaric” for continuing sanctions, the
world should laugh. Their desire to see sanc
tions lifted are not humanitarian but self
serving. With the proceeds from
their “food-for-oil” program,
Iraq has made down pay
ments on weapons sys
tems from all three of
these nations, to be de
livered as soon as
sanctions are lifted.
Why would the
U.N. consider lift
ing sanctions when
Iraq is not in compli
ance with the sanc
tions? Iraq has yet to
account for more than
80,000 Kuwaiti men who
have been missing since
1991, nor have they termi
nated their weapons of mass
destruction program.
Until these are done, the
lifting of sanctions should
not be considered.
It is a terrible tragedy
many Iraqis suffer because of
the actions of Hussein, but it is not the fault of the
United States. The solution is not the lifting of sanc
tions, but stronger enforcement of them.
As long as those around Hussein are able to live
comfortably, there is no chance he will be removed
from power. If they are made to feel the pinch of sanc
tions the rest of the nation has, then perhaps all of
Iraq will be of one mind — that Hussein must go. If
sanctions against Iraq were to be lifted, those oppos
ing them would rejoice Iraqis might not die.
These same people could then watch as hundreds
of thousands of Israelis, Saudis, Kuwaitis, Iranians
and probably Americans would suffer under a Hus
sein freed from the shackles of sanctions. Which is
better? The answer is clear. Nobody ever said it would
be simple or painless.
U.S. policy harms innocent Iraqi civilians
Mark Passwaters is an electrical engineering
graduate student.
A photo essay by the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer shows the
body of the tiny 2-year-old girl
in a little red dress, lying in the cor
ner of a cold, lonely hospital room.
She is a beautiful child and appears
gentle and peaceful. Her cheeks still
maintain a rosy hue, although the
rest of her body has become tinted
cold blue. Sadly, she is dead. And
the fact that she was alive only two minutes ago, full
of hopes and dreams, is haunting. It is painful to think
she could have been anyone’s sister, daughter or
niece. It is even more painful to realize that for
50 cents, the cost for helpful medication, she
could still be living.
But this is Iraq, where after
nine years of the most compre
hensive, strictly-enforced eco
nomic blockade of a
country in history, com
mon people are struggling
to survive. According to
the United Nations Chil
dren’s Fund (UNICEF),
500,000 Iraqi children
have died from lack of
food, medicine and
clean water.
The United States, the
sole world power still sup
porting the devastating sanc
tions, claims they must stay
in place until all of Iraq’s
weapons of mass destruction
have been accounted for and
destroyed. The United States
asserts that harsh economic condi
tions will motivate ordinary Iraqis to
overthrow Saddam Hussein.
However, this logic is flawed. The desire to destroy
a rogue dictator’s arms arsenal cannot possibly justify
the impoverishment of a people and the killing of half
a million innocent children.
The U.S.-backed economic sanctions on Iraq must
come to an end. They are immoral and ineffective.
They should be delinked from weapons inspections so
that common people do not have to suffer for the ac
tions of an intransigent government.
Since economic sanctions were put in place, all
they have done is cause misery and death of helpless
people, instilled in them a deep hatred for the United
States, further solidified Hussein’s grasp of power and
alienated America from the Arab and Islamic world.
How can the Iraqi people overthrow Hussein when
they are sick and hungry? A man who can barely get
enough to eat and has to work two to three jobs to sur
vive does not have the time nor the energy to chal
lenge the world’s most brutal and elusive dictator.
When the sanctions are stopped and Iraqis can return
to living normal, productive lives, they will be in a
much better position to affect change. If the sanctions
are doing anything, they are only giving Hussein what
he really wants—a weak and exhausted population
that he can easily manipulate.
Critics claim that the Iraqi government is hoarding
the U.N. relief in order to create a humanitarian disas
ter that will get Iraq world sympathy.
This is possible, and even probable. But what does
it matter? Hussein has been holding his people hostage
since he came to power.
He has maintained a “state of fear,” where no one
can publicly speak out against his tyranny. It is sense
less for the United States to further contribute to the
Iraqis’ woes by adding economic hardships to political
restrictions. Hussein will likely manipulate U.N. relief
aid as long as sanctions are in place. The only way to
stop him from having this monopoly is by terminating
the sanctions and allowing Iraqis to control their own
livelihoods in free trade. The majority of American
people, if properly informed, would never condone the
suffering sanctions have caused.
As evinced by a Sept. 6 Houston Chronicle special
on Iraq, sanctions have devastated the lives of civilians
but leave the government elite untouched. They have
impoverished formally middle-class and professional
Iraqis. Families have had to sell their belongings. Chil
dren beg in the streets. Millions have fled to neighbor
ing countries seeking economic refuge.
Of course, the worst are the children who are need
lessly dying. UNICEF reports that many die from
drinking dirty water. During the war, allied bombing
destroyed sewage and water-purification systems.
Now with sanctions and the greed of Hussein, there is
no money to repair them. A famine is looming, and
UNICEF has declared the situation a “humanitarian
emergency. ”
Credible individuals have called for an end to the
sanctions. Dennis Halliday, who was the U.N. Relief
Coordinator for Iraq and is arguably the world’s expert
on the subject, resigned in 1998 in protest of the sanc
tions, calling them simplistic and unsuccessful.
“There can be no justification in my view for the
death and malnutrition for which sanctions are re
sponsible,” he said, in a 1998 speech at Harvard Uni
versity. The pope also condemned the sanctions, and
according to The New York Times, he may even make
a visit to Iraq.
When a terrorist hijacks a plane and takes its inno
cent passengers hostage, the answer is not to shoot
down the plane and kill all on board. Yet this is what
U.S.-backed sanctions are doing to Iraq. It is time to
stop such senselessness and save the Iraqi people.
Caesar Ricci is a junior plant and
soil science major.
ROBERT HYNECEK/The Battalion
EDITORIAL ROUNDUP
from U-Wire editorial reports
dentors Listl
ators check out the websi# 1
i or call 845-6!
ampaign finance bill
lould not have failed
the Michigan Daily at the University
fJlichigan.
(U-WIRE) ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Last
ek, in what has become a yearly ritual
ashington, D.C., the U.S. Senate
|ain defeated a bipartisan campaign fi-
nce reform bill drafted by Sen. John
Cain of Arizona and Sen. Russ Fein-
of Wisconsin.
The bill was not defeated by lack of ma
lty support.
This year, as in past years, the McCain-
ingold legislation drew the support of a
Jjority of senators but was again defeat-
by a filibuster led by Sen. Mitch Mc-
mnell of Kentucky. ...
pwppY a flAVl The continued blocking of campaign fi-
4 Uhl ince reform by the Senate is an affront
the democratic ideals of this nation
is a clear example of how many law-
akers have become obsessed with rais-
gmoney. ...
The usual argument used against cam-
i out more about car«<f'S n finance reform is that it restricts
" edom of speech.
But it is difficult to see how corpora-
, please see us oncanft ns and s P ecial interest groups giving
'^“ndreds of thousands of dollars to politi-
Iparties can be construed as speech. It
a blatant form of bribery.
Companies do not give money to politi-
ansto exercise free speech. They con-
bute because it buys them influence
:30 p. mu - 6:45 p- 1 * 'd access to those who make laws af-
them. ...
Campaign finance reform is not about
Edging free speech. It is about allowing
levast majority of Americans who do not
lake exorbitant campaign donations to
re a voice in their government. ...
Our legislators today are spending more
ad more time raising money and less and
sstime legislating. Their primary con-
erns are no longer with their con
tinents, but their contributors. ...
While large amounts of polling data
bow that a clear majority of Americans fa-
orcampaign finance reform, few hold it
satop priority.
To end the giving of these vast sums of
loney, and thus special interest control
'four government, people need to con-
act lawmakers.
AJNCHANE!
N YOU STAB
ktober 27,1999
oorn 504 Rudder
'ww.clorox.com
AND MORE.
Donald Trump may be
best hope for Reform
From The Daily Athenaeum at West Vir
ginia University.
(U-WIRE) MORGANTOWN, W.V. — Forget
Gore vs. Bradley. Bush vs. McCain? No
way. The real fun begins and ends in the
Reform Party, where former Republican
Donald Trump declared his intention to file
papers on Monday that would make him
an official member of the Reform Party.
Ah, the first signs of another interesting
race. Trump vs. Buchanan. The prominent
businessman vs. the career political fig
ure. The public debates will be interesting,
to say the least. These two running for the
same nomination would be bigger news if
they weren’t running for the Reform Party
nomination.
Unfortunately, this race, if and when
Trump does decide to run, will be
missed by many Americans who just
don’t care enough about a rogue third
party to pay attention. ...
Buchanan has yet to respond to
Trump’s moves, but you can bet that Pat is
n’t going to sit idly by and allow the Donald
to sit around and talk smack about him on
national television.
Buchanan might not have to, though. A
recent poll done by CNN showed that
among the number of Americans most like
ly to vote in the Reform Party primary,
Buchanan would win, 52 percent to 33
percent sampling errors notwithstanding.
That’s not a good sign for Trump, who,
with a loss in this election, would go down
as the only candidate to lose an election
to a guy who would prefer that all his fol
lowers carry pitchforks. However, Trump
has a good shot of winning over those vot
ers if he does decide to run. He’s running
as an ultra-moderate, a true centrist.
He speaks as a moderate politician
who would offer tax cuts to the middle
class, ban “soft money” from campaigns
and negotiate tougher trade deals. ...
Strangely enough, if Trump wins, he will
give the Reform Party a lot more credibility
than Buchanan ever would, considering his
track record for success and the fact that he
makes no effort to court the so-called “lu
natic fringe” that Buchanan does. If Reform
Party voters want a chance to advance their
reputation, they’d do well to vote for Trump.
Meningitis prevention imperative
A deadly disease
is on the rise in
the United
States, but little is be
ing done to stop it.
Unfortunately, when
people are infected,
the disease is ex
tremely hard to stop.
Once symptoms ap
pear, death can sometimes come in as
few as 24 hours or leave survivors with
brain damage and multiple amputa
tions. These grisly possibilities should
be all the more frightening to college
students since this virulent killer has
universities in its cross-hairs.
The disease is meningococcal
meningitis, and Texas A&M must join
with other colleges throughout the
country to prevent its outbreaks by rais
ing awareness of the infection and
available vaccinations.
Meningitis leads to swelling around
the brain and spinal cord that can
cause permanent disabilities^ invading
the central nervous system and crip
pling the brain’s immunological defens
es. Sometimes, early signs of infection
— including headache, fever and nau
sea —- are not much different from flu
symptoms, and bacterial meningitis is
occasionally diagnosed incorrectly as a
common virus.
Unfortunately, it does not take long
for doctors to realize they have made a
mistake. As bacterial meningitis begins
to spread purplish-black rashes caused
by nerve death and blood poisoning of
ten appear at the victim’s extremities. To
prevent the spread o*! the ensuing gan
grene, patients are often forced to endure
several amputations.
Within 48 hours an infected person
may be dead, missing several limbs or be
severely brain damaged. Unless the in
fection is fought early with intensive an
tibiotics, few victims survive unscathed
by the disease.
Meningitis is extremely contagious.
The infection spreads easily through
kissing, sneezing and coughing or the
sharing of eating utensils.
Once a person has contracted the ill
ness, antibiotics should be adminis
tered to everyone the patient had been
in contact with in the previous 72
hours. Consequently, it quickly be
comes logistically difficult to stop the
bacteria from spreading.
Bacterial strains of meningitis are
still rare, but there has been a moder
ate increase in outbreaks since the
early 1990s. Studies are also begin
ning to show that this general rise is
inordinately affecting college-age stu
dents. Researchers have suggested
that college students’ statistical sus
ceptibility to infection is caused in
part by on-campus living.
It is not hard to see how residence
halls — where large numbers of peo
ple live in close proximity to one an
other — can be breeding grounds for
bacterial disease.
Steps must be taken
to stop a growing
killer among
college students.
According to The New York Times,
the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
released a report in May that college
freshmen living in residence halls were
six times more likely to be infected by
bacterial meningitis than off-campus
students. Living patterns also make col
lege students more vulnerable to the
disease. Heavy smoking, drinking and
sleep deprivation — chronic problems
for many college students — all lower
the immune system’s ability to stop
bacterial infections.
Fortunately, although meningitis
bacteria are dangerous, they are not in
vincible. If meningitis patients are diag
nosed quickly enough, they can usually
be cured with large doses of antibiotics,
and a preventive vaccination has been
developed for the disease.
Because horrible outbreaks can be
prevented and controlled, A&M must
focus on two pre-emptive policies to
lessen the likelihood of a meningitis
problem in College Station.
First, awareness is the key to stop
ping meningitis cases from becoming
fatal. The University must make con
certed efforts to educate students about
the importance of healthy lifestyles and
adequate amounts of sleep — especial
ly in the context of meningitis risks.
Students should also be instructed on
how to identify dangerous symptoms.
The A.P. Beutel Student Health Cen
ter at A&M provides information about
meningitis in the form of printed mater
ial and the general information phone
line. But these educational resources re
quire students — many of whom have
likely never heard of the disease — to
be inquisitive enough to seek informa
tion out. Initiatives should begin now to
make meningitis awareness more proac
tive, involving residence hall councils
and student leaders to educate students
about risks and preventive advice.
Secondly, the University should start
a campaign to inform parents about the
benefits of receiving meningitis immu
nization. Menommune, a vaccine
which is effective against four known
strains of bacterial meningitis, is rec
ommended to incoming freshmen, but
not required for admission. A&M
should at least make an organized in
quiry about the possible benefit of re
quiring the meningitis vaccination.
And in the meantime, University
health officials should more strongly
recommend the drug. Right now,
menommune appears inconspicuously
on a letter to parents.
More must be done. Along with rec
ommending the drug, the University
should give parents sufficient informa
tion about the disease and strive to
make the drug even more affordable
than it already is. The immunization
currently costs $57 at Beutel, but it
should be made as inexpensive as
those on the required list, which range
in price from $7 to $40. Some universi
ties have even had the foresight to
make menommune available for free.
. Students should not be unnecessari
ly frightened by meningitis; it is pre
ventable. But University officials should
not be lulled into complacency. Preven
tion requires action, and if A&M waits
until after an outbreak to emphasize
the dangers of meningitis, it will be too
late. The time to strike a blow against
meningococcal infections is now — be
fore they have a chance to strike first.
Caleb McDaniel is a junior
history major.